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Chapter 2   

       “Hey Tea!” Yugi’s cheerful voice came through the phone.  “What are you up to?”

       Tea tucked the receiver between her ear and her shoulder as she reached down into another box.

       “Just unpacking – my things arrived this morning.”

       “I thought so.  Hey, you want some help?”

       She almost shrugged and then remembered he couldn’t see her.  “Sure.”  She reached up to place the book she had just pulled out on a shelf.  Why hadn’t she labeled these boxes?

       “We’ll be there in an hour tops!” he told her.

       “We?” she grabbed the phone just before it fell off her shoulder, “Wait a minute Yugi, who’s ‘we’?”

       “Gotta go!” he said brightly, “See you in a little less than an hour.”

       “Yugi! Wait!”  it was too late; she heard the click that signaled her friend had hung up.

       “Who is we?” she said aloud.

***

       Forty five minutes later she knew.  ‘We’ turned out to be everyone she had ever known – with the possible exception of her first grade teacher.

       “Hey Tea,” Yugi greeted, “You said you could use some help, so here we are.  Got enough room for us all?”

       Tea looked behind her at the small apartment, and then out at the crowd on her doorstep, “Uh, sure.” She said uncertainly, stepping back to allow them entrance.

       Alright, so it wasn’t everyone she had ever known, but it was everyone who had been at her ‘welcome home’ party except Ishizu.

       “Ishizu had a meeting with the curator of the Domino Museum today,” Marik said apologetically, “they have a new exhibit opening next week and there were some final details.”

       Tea nodded dumbly.  How had Yugi gotten them all here?  Didn’t these people have jobs?

       Yugi stopped beside her, “I remembered you saying your things would arrive in three days so I took the liberty of telling everyone to mark it on their calendar.  Hope you don’t mind.”

       “No, of course not,” she smiled weakly, “the more the merrier right?  Who knows, we might get everything done in one day!”  The idea was definitely growing on her, now that she saw they could all fit.

       “Where shall we begin?” Yami asked.

       “Umm,” Tea scratched her head, “well, I didn’t actually label any of this stuff, so maybe we could start there and then we can place the boxes in appropriate rooms. I’m fairly sure I packed one room at a time from my old apartment.”

       “Right.” Yami nodded decisively.  “That’s an excellent place to start.  Do you have any pens?”

       Tea thought about it and then shook her head, “Somewhere in the boxes.”

       “That’s okay!” Serenity smiled, “I’ve got some.” She pulled four black markers out of her purse.

       “That’s my Serenity,” Tristan beamed, “Always prepared.”

       “Oh Tristan.” Serenity blushed.

       They had the boxes labeled and sorted in record time.  And it didn’t take them much longer to get everything unpacked.  She still had some boxes of knickknacks, but she would worry about those later.  For now they were piled against the wall in her room.

       The rest of the apartment already felt like home.  She had acquired only a few things in her time in New York.  Among them the essentials, dishes, towels, movies… so maybe the last wasn’t essential – but she liked them.  The kitchen was now orderly and ready for use, the living area was comfortable and homey, all her clothes were put away and her linens unpacked.

       Tea glanced at the clock.  What she had expected to take several days had taken a little over four hours!  But then, she had made her calculations based on one person not thirteen.  Seto and Yami were amazing coordinators.  They had assigned everyone into little groups and off everyone had gone.  The only thing Tea really had to do was make sure no one moved her ‘personal’ stuff.  Now they were relaxing in the living area, sprawled out over chairs, the couch, the floor, resting.  Mai and Joey had been sent in search of lunch, and Mokuba had had to run – seems he had an engagement he couldn’t break – but everyone else was still there.

         Tea smiled as she observed them, all a little sweaty, all a little tired, but all in very high spirits.  It was great to see Yami Bakura and Marik with smiles, or at least without scowls, on their faces.  Tristan had an arm around Serenity and was whispering something to her, she laughed.

       “Hey!” Duke tossed a cushion at them, “If you have something to say share it with the group!” He teased.

       Tristan did the only thing a mature man of twenty six could have done, he stuck out his tongue.  Serenity swatted him.

       “Tristan!” She scolded.

       Tristan grinned.  “What?” he asked loudly.

       Serenity giggled causing Yami Bakura to roll his eyes. 

       When Duke turned away again and reached for the TV remote Tristan furtively chucked the pillow back at him.  It hit the unsuspecting Duke square on the face.

       Marik snickered.

       Duke raised a brow at him.  “You think that’s funny?” he demanded, then he tossed the cushion at Marik.  The blond Egyptian ducked and the cushion hit Bakura on the head.

       “Hey!” he looked up in surprise.  “What was that?” he looked suspiciously around the room.  Why were they all laughing?  He narrowed his gaze focusing on Duke.  “Duke?”

       “Uh uh, it’s Marik’s fault!” he insisted, shaking his head.

       “Riiiight.” Bakura nodded.  He stood slowly, bringing the cushion up with him.

       “Bakura…” Duke almost fell over the back of the couch as Bakura dove for him.

       “GUYS!!!” Tea jumped out of the way just in time.  “What do you think you’re – Hey!” Tristan had taken advantage of the distraction and snuck up on Duke holding a pillow in one hand.  He and Bakura both began pelting Duke with pillows.

       “No fair!” he cried trying to run away, but he couldn’t see and tripped over Serenity.

       “You had better not break anything!” Tea shouted to be heard above the raucous.  She looked around helplessly, it was too late.  Even Serenity had joined in the fray.  Tea watched them all for a moment, trying to decide what to do.  Then she shrugged, there wasn’t anything out that could get hurt anyway.  She grabbed a pillow and whacked the next person to pass by – who happened to be Marik.

       “What? Tea!”  He turned on her and she backpedaled, laughing.  He narrowed his eyes teasingly and grinned, “You’re going to regret that!” he lunged at her and began to tickle her.

       Now only Seto and Yami Bakura were not involved.  Bakurai sat on the recently vacated couch watching TV and occasionally glancing at them in mild amusement.  Seto was leaning against the far wall just watching.  He smiled as Tea ran by flushed and laughing.  As Bakura approached, being chased by Yugi and Yami, he decided it was time to move.  He stepped away from the wall and over several cushions and then stopped as something bounced off of him.  He looked down at it. It was a small pillow.  He looked back toward the direction from which it had come and saw a very mortified Tea.

       Her hands were clasped over her mouth, her eyes wide, “Kaiba I – I’m so s-”

       He reached down and picked up the pillow, studying it for a moment.  Then he gave a sly grin and began walking toward her.

       “Kaiba I didn’t mean to, I was trying to get, I mean…” she ran up against the wall and stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights then noticed the sparkle in his eyes.  He wasn’t mad at her at all – he was joining in the game!  She smiled then turned and began to run.

       “Catch me if you can!” she shouted.  So he tried.

       “Tea!” she risked a glance backward and saw he was very close.

       “NOOO!” she laughed darting behind Yami.  “Save me!”

       Yami studied Kaiba thoughtfully, “No,” he shook his head, “I’m afraid you’re on your own Tea.” He stepped aside.

       It had startled her at first, to see Seto Kaiba having fun.  But she realized that he was genuinely having a good time.  She looked around the room.  Everyone was having fun, running, jumping, laughing, stumbling over furniture.  Serenity had Duke trapped in a corner and Tristan was tackling Yugi.

       The only one not involved was Bakurai.

       Bakura noticed this and waved at Marik to get the other man’s attention.  Standing behind his yami he pointed at the white haired former thief.  Marik nodded in understanding.  Quietly they crept up behind the couch, they crouched down.

       Bakura held up his fingers slowly, one… two… three!

       “Raaaaaaaaaaaaa!” they shouted, jumping up behind him.

       Bakurai jerked forward with a start.  He scolded himself for not noticing their approach, but consoled himself with a reminder that the room was very loud.  He turned to spear them with a cold glance.  “You imbeciles!”  he tried to sound furious but couldn’t quite pull it off.

       Bakura and Marik vaulted over the couch sitting beside Bakurai with goofy grins.

       “Come on, have some fun!” Bakura encouraged.

       His yami snorted.

       “Come on,” Marik teased, “if I can learn to relax you can too.” He gave Bakurai a light shove.

       “Aaahhhh!” Tea shrieked as she ran by them.  She tripped on the leg of the coffee table and went sprawling right on top of the three men on the couch.

       “Uh… sorry.” She sat up with a blush.  All three men reached to help her regain her balance as she stood.  Their cheeks were a little pink as well.

       To turn the attention away from his own embarrassment Bakurai picked up a cushion and whacked Bakura over the head with it.

       “Ryou you fool!  Now look what you’ve done!”

       “Me!” Bakura grinned. “It’s Marik’s fault!”

       Marik rolled his eyes, “Why does everyone always blame me?”

       “Because you usually are at fault!” Bakurai told him.

 Marik hit him over the head.

       “Why you – I may have to take that from Ryou, but you!” Bakurai began chasing Marik around the room.  The Egyptian vaulted over the couch laughing.  Bakura watched them and laughed as well, then he went after Yami.

       Joey and Mai cracked open the front door.  “Dinner is-” they stopped, viewing the commotion in astonishment.  All movement in the room stopped as all eyes turned to the couple.

       Joey shook his head grinning wryly, “Can’t leave you kids alone for ten minutes.” He scolded with amusement.

       “Kids?” Duke said skeptically.

       Tristan stuck his head up from behind the couch, “Dude gets married and suddenly he’s all ‘mature’.”

       “Yes,” Joey nodded decisively, “marriage does that to you.”

       “He makes it sound like a disease.” Serenity giggled.

       “Guess you’ll know all about that soon enough.” Marik teased.

       Serenity and Tristan blushed.

       “Well,” Mai said finally coming to her senses, “We brought pizza, salads, and soda if you’re all hungry.”

       There was a general rush toward the kitchen as Mai and Joey placed the parcels on the table.  That pillow fight had worked up their appetites!  Tea smiled as she watched them wolf down the food.  Only with friends…

***

       Tea sighed as she picked up the last tuft of pillow stuffing.

       “Sorry again about the pillow Tea.” Joey looked down at his feet, chagrinned.

       “That’s alright, it was old anyway.” She assured him.

       “Yeah, well, bye.” He gave her a wave and he and Mai left.

       Tea chuckled.  It really was alright, but it was funny.  Two pillow fights in one day?  They had acted like middle school kids, and it had felt wonderful.  She had missed this.

       “Bye Tea!”

       “Bye Yugi!”

       “Tea.” Yami nodded.

       “Bye Yami.”  The two spiky haired men walked out to their car with a final wave.

       Tea turned back to her apartment with a contented sigh.

       “Happy?” the deep voice startled her.  She looked back to see Seto still on the porch.

       She smiled and nodded.  “Yeah.”

       “Good.” He grinned at her.

       “Thanks for coming.” She said honestly.

       “It was fun.”

       They stood silently for a moment, each contemplating their own thoughts.  It was Kaiba who finally broke the silence.

       “I’m glad you’re home Tea.” He said quietly.  Tea looked up at him.

       “Me too.”

       Their eyes held a moment more before he turned and she shut the door.  As she heard his footsteps sounding on the walk she leaned back against the door, closing her eyes.  He had had that look in his eyes again.  What was it?  And why did it make her heart pound?   She wasn’t sure, but she wanted to find out.